While sport can help young people develop healthy lifestyles it can also teach valuable life skills and help with an individual’s personal development process. This is especially true for young people with fewer opportunities. Sport methods and outdoor activities can help youngsters in this target group to develop a wide range of social skills. In this way sport helps these young people become much more than fit – it can help make them truly “Fit for Life”.

Based on the outcomes of the SALTO “Inclusion through Sport” training courses (2004), this practical booklet aims to inform youth workers, youth leaders and European institutions of the value of sport as an educational tool for the fewer opportunity target group. The theory behind using sport as a method is made concrete through real-life examples. An extensive list of methods is also provided to help youth organisations take the first steps towards implementingsport as a learning method on local as well as on European level.

The European Commission created a network [2005] of eight SALTO-YOUTH Resource Centres to enhance the implementation of the European YOUTH programme which provides young people with valuable non-formal learning experiences.